When Charles and Sandi Wiffen started there grape growing business in 1980 they were mostly on selling their grapes to Montana. The first vintage under their own label was 1997 with the wine being made in Auckland by Westbrook Winery under the winemaking direction of Anthony Ivecivich. Considering the labels short heritage the huge number of awards and accolades attributed to his wines is impressive. The 2001 Sav took out top sav at Sydney and London. The prestigious best Sav in the World was claimed by the 2001 Vintage at the London Royal Wine Fair in early 2002.

The Wiffen Family are also heavily involved in the St Clair vineyard which they have helped maintain and farm since 1980. Prior to this although always owned by the Wiffen's it was utilised for more traditional agricultural uses such as sheep, cows and grain farming.

The site of the vineyards that this wine comes from are all north eastern facing with a slight rise from north to south. This incline increase the ripeness and fullness of his wines.

Charles Wiffen Sav is often noted for it's complex notes which Charles has attributed to canopy management and soil formation. The wines are often partial malo fermented taking the big bite out of the sav but increasing the complexity and length of the wine on the palate.

2002 was an interesting vintage with excellent examples of sav blanc being produced across the board. The summer was quite cool but very long allowing grapes to ripen slowly. Consequently the tartaric acids were particulalrly high giving light colour (in some cases almost water colour) but good complexity and structure.

This wine was tasted in an ISO at room temperature (about 18 celsius)

Colour: Straw- although not as light as most 2002's.
Nose: Pineapple, strong goosebury, light hints of sweet grass, lychees also evident along with a sweet apple note.
Palate: Strong malo influence and moderate alcohol (13%) give this wine a very silky oily palate. The acids don't dominate, but are certainly there and would be more evident if the wine was chilled. The flavours are centralised around the mid paalte with the alcohol bitterness giving good contrast to the fruit.
Overall: A good example of Marlborough sav blanc. For the $20 NZD this is a good buy. A on the QPR scale and 90 points on the Jeremy Scale.

This wine is readily available in California and the UK according to Charles.